Ribosome profiling reveals the rhythmic liver translatome and circadian clock regulation by upstream open reading frames

Mammalian gene expression displays widespread circadian oscillations. Rhythmic transcription underlies the core clock mechanism, but it cannot explain numerous observations made at the level of protein rhythmicity. We have used ribosome profiling in mouse liver to measure the translation of mRNAs into protein around-the-clock and at high temporal and nucleotide resolution. Transcriptome-wide, we discovered extensive rhythms in ribosome occupancy, and identified a core set of ˜150 mRNAs subject to particularly robust daily changes in translation efficiency. Cycling proteins produced from non-oscillating transcripts revealed thus far unknown rhythmic regulation associated with specific pathways (notably in iron metabolism, through the rhythmic translation of transcripts containing iron responsive elements), and indicated feedback to the rhythmic transcriptome through novel rhythmic transcription factors. Moreover, estimates of relative levels of core clock protein biosynthesis that we deduced from the data explained known features of the circadian clock better than did mRNA expression alone. Finally, we identified uORF translation as a novel regulatory mechanism within the clock circuitry. Consistent with the occurrence of translated uORFs in several core clock transcripts, loss-of-function of Denr, a known regulator of re-initiation after uORF usage and of ribosome recycling, led to circadian period shortening in cells. In summary, our data offer a framework for understanding the dynamics of translational regulation, circadian gene expression, and metabolic control in a solid mammalian organ. Overall design: A total of 48 mice were entrained under 12hours light:dark conditions for 2 weeks and also collected under 12hours light:dark. Mice were sacrificed every two hours during the 24 hours daily cycle. Two replicates per time point, each replicate is a pool of 2 livers.

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Sinturel F, Gerber A, Mauvoisin D, Wang J, Gatfield D, Stubblefield JJ, Green CB, Gachon F, Schibler U